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MORE businesses were started in Singapore in the second quarter of this year than in the first three months of 2014. The Singapore Business Formation Statistics Report counted 18,689 new businesses registered here in the second quarter.

COMPANIES are paying their bills seven days faster than they were in the first quarter of 2014. According to Trade Payment Data released by the DP SME Commercial Credit Bureau, this is the first improvement for 18 months.

DEVELOPERS’ sale of private condos plunged 68 per cent from a month ago to 482 units in June, a quiet month where only 418 units were launched.

HOTEL and serviced residence owner Frasers Hospitality Trust (FHT) made its debut on the Singapore Exchange mainboard at 90 Singapore cents a unit, up two cents, or 2.3 per cent, compared to its initial public offer (IPO) at 88 cents a unit.

Singapore tried its best to save an own goal on Monday by updating an anti-gambling ad that starred a despairing boy named Andy telling friends his dad had bet his life savings on Germany winning the World Cup.

RESALE prices of private condos slipped further last month to a one-and-a-half year low since December 2012, despite an increase in resale volumes in the same month.

Compared to May, prices fell 1.4 per cent, led by declines in across all regions in Singapore, data from SRX shows.

CATALIST-listed JK Tech Holdings has announced on Friday plans to issue up to 150 million new shares at 40 Singapore cents each to raise net proceeds of S$59 million to fund its diversification into the oil and gas sector.

SOUND corporate governance and a clear business mandate have helped Temasek Holdings and government-linked companies (GLCs) in Singapore perform better than the market, said a report on Friday.The study, entitled “The State as a shareholder: The case of Singapore,” was done before Temasek released its results.On Tuesday, Temasek reported its portfolio rose to S$223 billion, from S$215 billion the year before. Its total shareholder return (TSR), in Singapore dollars, was 1.5 per cent on a one-year basis, mainly due to weakness in the Singapore and Chinamarkets.

EZRA Holdings registered a 16 per cent year-on-year rise in third quarter net profit, from US$7.2 million to US$8.3 million for the period ending May 31, 2014. The offshore and marine services firm on Friday said revenue for Q3 came in 27 per cent higher at US$402.1 million, as compared to US$317.1 million in the corresponding period a year earlier.

FIRST Sponsor Group Ltd (FSGL) – a developer of residential and commercial properties in China – on Thursday offered 34.05 million shares at S$1.50 each for mainboard listing in its initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore.The invitation represents about 5.8 per cent of the group’s enlarged share capital.

[SINGAPORE] Oilfield service firm Ezra Holdings Ltd said it is injecting its offshore support services division, EMAS Marine, into its associated company EOC Ltd in a stock-and-cash deal worth US$520 million.

COME August, advertising agency McCann Singapore will have a new CEO; Robert Doswell, Asia Pacific’s regional managing director of Craft, will assume the role on the first of that month.

Mr Doswell will continue his current responsibilities with Craft, and will take over from Benjamin Lightfoot, who served as McCann Singapore CEO for three years.

SOME 15 per cent of companies in Singapore are now using renminbi (RMB) to settle cross-border business, an increase from 11 per cent last year. According to a survey by HSBC, half of respondents from Singapore said they believe RMB usage brings financial benefits.

A strong Singapore dollar “should not be seen as too helpful” in curbing rising prices in Singapore, since various measures suggest that inflation pressures are more domestic in nature, said a Credit Agricole CIB report released on Wednesday

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday said it welcomed the move by China’s central bank to allow companies and individuals in Tianjin Eco-City to conduct cross-border yuan transactions with Singapore.

A centre to showcase Singapore food products opened on Wednesday at the Yiwu International Commodity Trade Mart – the world’s largest commodity wholesale market located in Zhejiang province, China.

China’s central bank will allow companies and individuals in Tianjin Eco-City to conduct cross- border yuan transactions with Singapore, following in the footsteps of the Suzhou Industrial Park where a trial scheme was approved last month.

In a move to solidify its franchise for non-resident Indian (NRI) clients, BNP Paribas Wealth Management has appointed Masroor Batin as its managing director and head of NRI based in Singapore, effective July 1, 2014.

Property and construction firm Yoma Strategic Holdings is entering the tyre business in Myanmar through a joint venture company with Mitsubishi Corporation.

THE Land Transport Authority has awarded two companies – Fonda Global Engineering and Yang Seng Engineering – its tender to replace street lights at about 500 roads island-wide with more energy efficient Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lighting.Fonda Engineering clinched the tender last month with a successful bid of S$8.56 million,

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has placed EcoHouse Group – an overseas property development firm which specialises in the construction of investor- funded housing for Brazilian families – on its Investor Alert List (IAL).

SENTIMENT for Singapore’s office sector remains positive as capital values and rents continued to rise in the second quarter amidst a backdrop of limited supply and higher occupancy rates, said a DTZ report released on Monday.

Fitch Ratings has assigned Singapore-based DBS Group Holdings’ (DBSH) proposed US dollar-denominated senior unsecured notes an expected rating of ‘AA-(EXP)’. The notes will be issued under the joint USD15bn global medium term note (GMTN) programme that the entity shares with its fully-owned subsidiary, DBS Bank Ltd.

IN its latest Singapore strategy report, Macquarie Research said it still sees opportunities in cyclical sectors that have lagged as well as in the domestic Land Transport sector, which is benefitting from major policy changes. Top picks are Noble, Keppel, UOB, GLP and ComfortDelgro and SMRT, with strong catalysts over the next 6-12 months according to the report entitled “Cures for the summertime blues”.

THREE of the 1,560 SingPass accounts that were compromised last month were used to make fraudulent work pass applications, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore said on Friday.

M1 will supply and install digital television equipment for low-income houses under a programme to give them continued reception of free-to-air TV channels after Singapore switches over to digital broadcasting by 2020. This contract, part of the Digital TV Assistance Scheme for low-income households, was awarded by the Media Development Authority (MDA) following an open tender called from March 20 to April 22.

MAPLETREE Investments’ first shopping mall in Vietnam has attained pre-leasing commitment for more than half its net lettable area (NLA), way ahead of its scheduled opening in the first half of next year OCBC Investment Research has initiated a buy call on Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL) and Wheelock Properties Ltd given their key assets in the West Orchard area. The research house has pegged the fair value for HPL at S$5.32 a share, a 35 per cent discount to its revalued net asset value (RNAV

THE Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced on Thursday that the volume of securities traded on the bourse has declined in June, while trading in derivatives and commodities continued to increase, with record volumes for SGX rubber futures and iron ore offerings

KEPPEL Corp’s US$735 million contract with Golar Hilli Corporation, a subsidiary of Golar LNG, to perform the world’s first-of-its-type conversion of an existing Moss LNG carrier into a floating liquefaction vessel, has become effective.

SINGAPORE-based engineering group Starburst Holdings is seeking a listing on Singapore’s Catalist board to raise S$13.5 million in net proceeds.The company is offering 50 million shares at S$0.31 each in its initial public offer.Two million shares will be offered for public subscription, while 48 million will be placed.

Shares of Singapore’s Jaya Holdings Ltd soared as much as 23 per cent in high turnover on Wednesday, after they went ex-dividend. Jaya announced last week it would pay S$0.16 per share on or about July 14, and the record date for the purpose of determining the shareholders’ entitlement to the cash distribution would be July 4.

THERE are six developmental challenges that industry stakeholders, including Olam International, have to address in this century, Sunny Verghese, group managing director and chief executive officer of Olam International, wrote in a blog entry celebrating the commodities firm’s 25th anniversary.These are: food security, water security, climate change, energy security and building a new paradigm of sustainable.